VZCZCXYZ0000
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHEG #0244 0411436
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 101436Z FEB 08
FM AMEMBASSY CAIRO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 8108
INFO RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC

UNCLAS CAIRO 000244 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
DRL/IRF FOR COFSKY 
NSC STAFF FOR PASCUAL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KIRF PHUM PGOV EG
SUBJECT: EGYPTIAN HIGH COURT RULES IN FAVOR OF RECONVERTS 
 
REF: A. 07 CAIRO 1427 
     ¶B. CAIRO 157 
 
Sensitive but unclassified.  Please protect accordingly. 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary:  On February 10, Egypt's Supreme Court of 
Administrative Justice ruled in a case brought by Christian 
"re-converts" that the government must issue identification 
documents listing their religion as Christianity.  The ruling 
reversed an April 2007 decision by the Cairo Court of 
Administrative Justice which held that Egypt's Ministry of 
Interior (MoI) was not required to recognize reconversions 
(ref A).  The February 10 ruling, which cannot be appealed, 
is expected to apply broadly to the hundreds of reconversion 
cases pending in Egypt's administrative court system. Egypt's 
human rights community welcomed the decision as a positive 
development in Egypt's struggle with entrenched legal and 
bureaucratic practices that undermine constitutional 
guarantees of religious freedom. End summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) The February 10 decision requires the government to 
issue all-important identification documents to "reconverts," 
individuals born as Christians who converted to Islam and 
subsequently reconverted to Christianity.  The ruling applies 
directly to 12 cases, but attorneys involved in the cases 
expect the court to apply the ruling to 45 other cases 
pending before it.  Additionally, according to Ramses Al 
Naggar, an Embassy contact and lawyer representing many 
reconverts, there are at least 400 similar cases pending in 
lower administrative courts. Al Naggar expects the lower 
courts to quickly apply the Supreme Administrative Court's 
ruling to the cases before them. 
 
¶3. (SBU) The practical effect of the ruling is that 
reconverts may now list Christianity, rather than Islam, as 
their religion on official documents.  As a result, 
reconverts will no longer be subject to Muslim personal 
status laws and may freely marry Christians. Their children 
will not be required to participate in Islamic religious 
education courses in public schools. 
 
¶4. (SBU) The judge delivered the ruling orally and has not 
yet issued a written decision. In his comments, the judge 
said that he will require the MoI to state in any resulting 
identification documents that the holder had at some point 
adopted Islam.  Human rights lawyer Gamal Eid (please 
protect), who is involved in other religious freedom 
litigation, told us that this portion of the ruling is 
worrisome as it could be an "invitation to discrimination." 
Al Naggar, however, said he is less concerned, and will wait 
to see how, and if, this part of the decision is implemented. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Reaction to the ruling has been positive with human 
rights groups, including the Egyptian Initiative for Human 
Rights, welcoming it.  Al Naggar said that his clients are 
extremely happy with the decision.  He believes the ruling 
has the potential to be applied not only to the pending cases 
brought by reconverts, but in a range of other religious 
identification cases, for instance to children of parents who 
converted to Islam, but who, as adults, wish to assert a 
Christian identity. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Comment:  This ruling comes less than two weeks 
after the Cairo Administrative Court ruled that the MoI must 
issue identification documents, with the religious 
identification block left blank, to members of Egypt's Baha'i 
minority (ref B).  Whether these rulings represent a trend 
towards greater respect for Egypt's constitutional guarantee 
of religious freedom will not be clear until the MoI 
bureaucracy begins implementation. For now, the lawyers 
involved in the cases are optimistic. They attribute their 
recent successes to Egypt's administrative courts acting 
professionally and thoroughly considering the reconverts' 
legal arguments, arguments the lawyers say are well-grounded 
in Egyptian law. 
RICCIARDONE